10,000 steps is a myth, and more things that are wrong.

Let's talk about pace, baby.

The rant I had about BMI being bullshit, and other things that are wrong ended up being one of my most read posts, only a tad bit behind this one about why, despite all the healthful things I do, I am still fat.

So I thought given I had to cut for length the original list of things that were wrong, I’d do a part two. Cool? Cool.

You might already know, but.

1. 10,000 steps is not actually the correct daily target for pounding the pavement.

   Without digressing too much, this whole 10,000 steps business came from a marketing company launching a new pedometer product in Japan around the mid 1960’s. The Japanese character for 10,000 looks a bit like a person taking a stride, and so the 10,000 steps a day thing became a thing. Then fitspo industry got hold of it and doubled down on it until everyone kinda accepted 10,000 steps as being the benchmark for a successful daily step count. This goal of 10,000 steps is nothing more than a marketing term. Cool.
   
   The official number is actually.. it depends.

   
   Is it better to step 10,000 times but for it to take 17 hours? Is it better to step 5,000 times and to complete that in 45 minutes? Let’s talk about pace, and purpose.
   Firstly, why are we increasing our step count? The average step count for sendentary people is 2,700. Harvard reckons if sendentary people increase SLOWLY up to 4,400, the risk of mortality drops by about 41%. That mortality rate, goes up till about 7,500 steps where it levels off - so 25% less than this arbitrary 10k steps target.
   Additionally, if it’s health benefits we’re after, is it better for us to walk faster with fewer steps, or slower and achieve more? Individuality is what brings this argument to its knees. Like everything on the health spectrum, taking individual health markers, seeing which of these need improving, and then addressing those concerns, is the better way to go, right? We’re not going to suggest to someone with a broken leg to up their steps in order to improve their health, and so this blanket 10k step goal is kinda pointless.
   
   Don’t get me wrong. Walking is the single best exercise you can do for overall health improvements. But busting a gut to get to 10k steps everyday isn’t so necessary.
   
   Moving on.

2. Stretching before a workout?
   No.
   Well, kind of no.
   In just about all media we see of a person about to set off for a run, we see them in a static stretching position (like touching toes) instead of a dynamic stretch, which is like low key movement. Think washing machine trunk swing, leg swings, or a walking lunge - those things are great to do before a workout so we can leave the static stretches for warm muscles following a workout.
   

3. Detoxing is a disaster
   The fitness and wellness industry is worth a hundred billion dollars. Helped in part by juice cleanses and other bullshit detox teas that only really end up in moving bowels a bit faster.
   There’s really only two types of detox, and according to Edzard Ernst, emeritus professor of complementary medicine at Exeter University:

   “There are two types of detox: one is respectable and the other isn’t.” The respectable one, is the medical treatment of people with life-threatening drug addictions. The other is the word being hijacked by entrepreneurs, quacks and charlatans to sell a bogus treatment that allegedly detoxifies your body of toxins you’re supposed to have accumulated.”

   If toxins did build up in a way your body couldn’t excrete, you’d likely be dead or in need of serious medical intervention. The healthy body has kidneys, a liver, skin, even lungs that are detoxifying as we speak, there is no known way – certainly not through detox treatments – to make something that works perfectly well in a healthy body work better.”

   Well said Professor Ernst!

Sooo, along with other things that are wrong (there’s loads and there might be a part three to come in the future), step counts, static stretching before a workout, and liver detoxing with a tea or juice, can be put on the no thanks heap.

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Thanks for reading this newsletter. I really appreciate the time you give to me for this and I hope you get some value from it. If you have any questions you can reply directly to this email or if you’ve landed here from a link, email lou@sweatypals.nz. You can also follow me on Twitter here, and instagram here.

Please remember while I am a qualified fitness trainer, nutrition is an interest of mine, I am not a registered dietitian or nutritionist, and information shared here is through my own lived experience, personal study or a peer reviewed study I have nerded out on reading and sharing with you.

Lou xx

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash